Throughout the years that vacuum cleaners have been on the market, a great number of vacuum cleaner nozzles have been developed for use mostly in private homes. Conventional nozzles are connected to a hose (in most cases a folded and stiffened hose) under vacuum by means of a slightly conical coupling which principally comprises a female and a male part. That part of the nozzle which is in contact with the floor is usually provided with bristles. These bristles are nowadays made of synthetical materials. The underpart of the nozzles usually also have a slide surface comprising a hard surface. This slide surface is usually made of steel. More recently, it has been more and more common to make slide surfaces out of a plastic material. In order to get a maximum suction effect and in order to minimize the friction against different floors, the nozzles are designed in such a way that it is possible to change the type of contact surface against the floor. When vacuum cleaning, for instance, hard floors, the nozzles are adjusted so that its bristle part is in contact with the floor. When vacuum cleaning soft floors, like for instance wall-to-wall carpets, the bristle part is raised so that the slide surface will instead be in contact with the floor.
The vacuum cleaner nozzles in the market today have several drawbacks. In the following, some of these drawbacks shall be mentioned. It is well known that after using the nozzles for a time, the bristles become covered by dirt. This results in a tightening of the space between the bristles, which results in deteriorated suction effect. Furthermore, the concentration of dust on the bristles results in a hygenical inconvenience and constitutes a good growth environment for bacteria. This circumstance may cause allergic attacks. Moreover, dirty bristles are very hard to clean. If the cleaning is successful, the final result in those cases is deteriorated qualities of the bristles.
Another drawback is that when vacuum cleaning different floors, the vacuum cleaner nozzles there has to be made an adjustment between the bristle part and the slide surface of the nozzle. Since this means a more complicated construction, the risk increases that as time goes on there will be problems with the device. The complicated construction also means that the manufacture of the vacuum cleaner nozzle is made more expensive.
A further drawback with conventional vacuum cleaner nozzles is that the relatively complicated construction leads to leakage at the coupling between the nozzle and the pipe connection. There will also be a leakage at the change device of the nozzle for the adjustment between the bristle and the slide surface.
A further drawback with conventional vacuum cleaner nozzles is the fact that they do not effectively suck up rubbish positioned close to the edging of a room. Thus, it is practically impossible by means of conventional nozzles to suck up rubbish close to the floor borders. Moreover, most nozzles are rather clumsy and relatively high (rather big in a vertical direction), which makes it difficult or even impossible to reach positions under low spaces with the nozzle.
The present invention reduces or even eliminates the problems with existing vacuum cleaner nozzles. The invention comprises a new vacuum cleaner nozzle which shall be described in the following. According to the invention, the lower part of the nozzle is separated into at least two separate vacuum chambers. A feature of the vacuum chambers of the present invention is that they are provided with underpressure (vacuum) via pipe parts, each of which being connected to one vacuum chamber. Furthermore, the invention is characterized by the fact that its underpart being in contact with the floor is exchangeable and that this exchangeable underpart is suitable to both hard and soft floors. A further characterizing feature of the invention is that the one side of the long side of the nozzle is provided with recesses, which function as air channels when the nozzle is in contact with for instance a vertical wall surface.
In the following, the invention will be described in more detail with reference being made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the invention.